I can have as many women as I want: Goa minister

Panaji, Jan 6 (IANS) Rejecting his estranged wife’s allegation of bigamy, Goa Tourism Minister Francisco alias Mickky Pacheco Tuesday said he could have as many women as he wanted though he was married to only one. The outspoken Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) legislator said the allegation of bigamy made by his wife Sara was misplaced.

“You prove that I am married twice and I will step down from the ministry. I am married only once, to Sara. I can have as many women as I want,” Mickky told reporters here.

Mickky added that Viola Pacheco, with whom he is currently living, was not his wife. “I am not married to her,” he said.

Mickky accused his arch rival and Public Works Department (PWD) Minister Churchill Alemao of instigating Sara into making these allegations.

“Churchill has given her Rs.50 lakh (Rs.5 million) to raise these issues against me because I have filed a disqualification petition against him before the (assembly) speaker. He is getting even with me. He knows his days as legislator are numbered,” Pacheco said, alleging that Sara was living in a flat owned by Churchill Alemao’s brother Kennedy Alemao.

He alleged that Churchill Alemao was asking him to withdraw the disqualification petition. “His lawyer Mike Mehta suggested that I should try and settle the issue. I told him there is nothing to settle,” he said.

Mickky said he had discussed the bigamy issue with NCP chief and central minister Sharad Pawar when he was in Goa. “I told Pawar that this is my personal life. He respected that,” Mickky said.